Mingo Central going through football summer drills

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RED JACKET – Longtime football coach Yogi Kinder was at one of his favorite places on Tuesday morning – the football field.

Kinder enters his fourth season as head coach of Mingo Central High School. He and some of his assistants were conducting summer drills at Buck Harless Stadium on Monday.

Kinder was the coach at Matewan High School for more than 30 years before the consolidation.

“It really helps the young kids,” Kinder said of the summer sessions while his players warmed up on the Field Turf. “It gives the kids that come in from Matewan and Gilbert a chance to learn the system. We’ve got a couple from Burch.”

Kinder is disappointed that he isn’t getting any players from Williamson Middle School (WMS). WMS did not have enough kids to field a team the last two seasons. Kinder hopes that that feeder school will be able to get the program started back this fall.

“This does help the kids and it gets the older kids back in the mood to play some football,” Kinder said of the three-week summer sessions. “We can’t do a lot of things that they are able to do in other states. We don’t have spring practice.”

Kinder said he couldn’t get any 7-on-7 drills scheduled with other teams, so he is just going to do that with his own kids. “We have enough kids that we can do it right up here on the mountain,” he said.

Mingo Central will have its first full slate of Cardinal Conference games this season. Due to scheduling issues and previous game contracts, they were only able to play a partial schedule the past two seasons.

“That’s going to be tough,” Kinder said of the slate. “If you can’t win the Cardinal Conference, you certainly can’t win the state championship. This conference will get you ready. This is one of the best Double-A leagues in the state. You better be ready to play every week.”

Some of Kinder’s former players are serving as assistant coaches. He has Joey Fields, Josh Sammons, Hady Ford and Terrance Pruitt. Sammons played for UPike the last couple of seasons, after starting his career at Marshall.

“This is one of the best staffs I’ve had around me,” Kinder said. “These guys were real good football players. These young guys will help our players a lot. They have a lot of enthusiasm. They are smart and have a lot of football knowledge.”

The Miners had about 40 players out for the first week. Kinder said some kids were on vacation, some were at academic events and some were at basketball camp. However, he said, some are just “lazy” and don’t like to come out.

Kinder said he understands that families and kids want to go on vacations, go fishing and ride their 4-wheelers. However, he would like for them to try to schedule around the three-week practice period.

Mingo Central only loses four seniors from a squad that went 8-2 in the regular season and made it to the Class AA playoffs last year. That was the best season so far for the new consolidated school.

The Miners will add Scott and Sissonville on the regular season schedule in 2014. They dropped Logan and Webster County to make room for those two conference schools. The two non-conference games will be with Wyoming East and Westside from neighboring Wyoming County.

The Miners have lost junior Deonte Joplin, a running back, who has transferred to Belfry, Ky. Joplin was one of the backs that saw carries last season for Mingo Central. He gained close to 1,000 yards in 2013.

Kinder expects several kids to step up this fall and make an impact on the field. For now, they will work on fundamentals and try to get the younger kids accustomed to the program.

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2014 Mingo Central

High School Football Schedule:

Aug. 29 - Wyoming East, Away

Sept. 5 - *Tolsia, John Fry Bowl, Home

Sept. 12 - *Sissonville, Away

Sept. 19 - Westside, Home

Sept. 26 - *Wayne, Away

Oct. 3 - Open

Oct. 10 - *Poca, Homecoming, Home

Oct. 17 - *Chapmanville, Home

Oct. 24 - *Scott, Away

Oct. 31 - *Herbert Hoover, Senior Night, Home

Nov. 7 - Mt. View, Away

Denotes conference games *

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